Swim fee doesn't float with seniors

Thursday

Oct 17, 2013 at 8:50 AM

By Melody Burri melody@messengerpostmedia.com

VICTOR — For years, local residents of all ages have suited up as early as 5:30 a.m. to swim in the Victor Central School District’s pool. It has always been free.Last Wednesday morning — for the community's first morning swim in the new Victor Aquatics Center — people were asked to pay a $2 fee before diving in. That didn’t sit well with some senior adults, who voiced their opposition at Tuesday’s Town Board meeting.Dorothy Guinan, a 50-year resident of Victor who owns property in both Victor and Farmington, said she feels like she has been paying school taxes “twice” each year."I've enjoyed swimming in the pool before school opens," said Guinan. "After 50 years of paying taxes I feel it’s a bit of an insult to be asked to pay $2."Victor Supervisor Jack Marren clarified that the $2 charge was not a school district decision, but one made by Town Board members along with Brian Emelson, Victor Parks and Recreation director.“This is Brian responding to the Town Board’s direction to recover some costs,” said Marren. "We're sympathetic to our seniors. We’ve done a lot of nice things for them over the years.”The $2 fee pays for two lifeguards, Emelson said. “We've been paying for one lifeguard, now we have to have two — it’s the size of the pool, the oversight, the expectation, the need for having a lifeguard in a deck chair and an attendant signing people in.”In addition to the senior adults who swim regularly, Emelson said there are another 20 or 30 people who are come in the morning. Swimmers range in age from 14 all the way to 88, he said.“My experience as a pool manager is that you need to have breaks for your lifeguards every 15 minutes or they’re just going to doze off,” said Emelson. “I’m not comfortable with having one guard checking people in and their backs are turned to what’s going on over here in lane six. We’d all feel terrible if we cut costs and someone drowned.”Gardner Soule of Cline Road in Victor has been a morning swimmer at the Victor pool for years."I have certainly enjoyed the pool, and it's been a great community resource," said Soule. “When you see people in wheelchairs or using a cane coming in to swim because their doctor has told them to, I think (the free swim) is a wonderful thing. I'm sorry to see that it's going to go away."Jerry Birmingham of Gypsum Mills has been swimming about five times each week, about 40 weeks each year. If he paid the new entrance fee, he said it would cost him $400 — far more than he can afford.Sally Soule, also of Cline Road, has been swimming in the pool since the 1970s. She recommended offering special fees or free passes to people 65-70 and older.“For some of us, having a free pass would be just the thing to keep us going and meet our fitness needs,” she said. “I figured out that about six of us would come in to swim about 500 times a year — that's about $1,000 that the town would lose.”Ellen Sturch has been swimming twice a week for an hour for the last 11 years.“I'm basically trying to keep moving and be agile,” she said. “When I started I couldn't even swim the length of the pool. I believe Parks and Recreation should encourage seniors to get fit and stay fit by waiving the fee. They call it a community pool. Why should we have to pay to use it?”Seniors argued that the morning swim benefits people who are dealing with arthritis, recovering after surgeries or injuries, or who simply want to get fit or stay fit.“We have four other programs for seniors that are subsidized by the town,” Councilman Dave Tantillo told residents Tuesday. “We have to figure out how to balance all this with just so much money.”Councilman Jack Dianetti also sympathized with senior residents, but acknowledged it’s a tough decision.“You've been paying the bill for a long time,” he said to seniors at the Town Board meeting. “And now you're paying the bill for the pool, and the new classrooms that you won't get any benefit from. I hope we can do something to accommodate you, but where do you draw the line?”Jeff Cody affirmed a concept of offering a type of debit card that's worth so many credits for seniors, in which the user could determine how they want to consume those credits.The Parks and Recreation Citizens Advisory Committee was to discuss the subject at Wednesday's regular meeting, according to Emelson.